Playing the Field
by mayzie
Summary: Marauder Era. Moira has big plans and none of them involve Sirius Black, but when she tries to win over Remus and becomes friends with Lily, things become more complicated than she imagined.
1. August

**Here's my newest story that has a somewhat unconventional plan mapped out. It takes place in the Marauders' sixth year; this is after the 'mudblood' incident, but before the Remus almost killing Snape incident. I promise it's not a Sirius/Mary Sue fic, not at all.**

**Also, if you read this chapter before, I changed the main character's name from Maggie to Moira because I needed her name for another story (awkward).**

**I hope you enjoy it, please tell me what you think! Also, check out some of my other stories!**

**I am not JK Rowling and I don't own any of the rights to Harry Potter stuff.**

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"Da! We're gonna miss the portkey, hurry!" Moira McKinnon yelled as her, her brother, Rodger, and their cousin, Marlene, ran up the hill just on the edge of her village. The sun was starting to come up far in the east, slowly streaking over the Cliffs of Moher. She bent over, pressing her hands on her knees, to catch her breath. They had run nearly the whole way from their cottage, which wasn't very far, but it _was_ at the bottom of the hill.

"Oi! Maybe if you were carrying as much as me!" Her father grunted as he nearly climbed up the rest of the way on his hands and knees. Rodger and Moira ran to his aid and took the tent and two of their many bags from him. Rodger threw the strap of the tent bag over his shoulder and Moira did the same with a duffle as she handed the other bag to Marlene.

"Mr. McKinnon!" called a voice from the top of the hill. They all looked up to see a silhouetted figure. Moira squinted into the sunlight to see her brother's best friend, Dave, waving at them holding a large rusty can.

"That must be it!" said Mr. McKinnon rubbing his hands together excitedly. They closed the distance between them and Dave, and each greeted him differently.

"How ya doin', son?" said Mr. McKinnon with a firm handshake.

"Good, good. Real excited for these VIP tickets," Dave responded with a huge goofy grin.

"What's on, man!" Rodger said pulling Dave into a quick hug. Then Dave turned to Moira, who was waiting patiently, and wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and lifted her up. When Dave deposited her back on the ground he ruffled her hair, which made her scrunch up her face and pat her French braids back down into place.

"Davie Davie!" Moira said laughing. Davie Davie was the nickname Dave had earned when Moira was ten and first learned his full name was David Davies; it was the first time he had ever stayed with the McKinnons after his and Rodger's first year at Hogwarts.

"Hey, heard you got those metal things off your teeth, lemme see," Dave said happily. He was always happy; nothing could get him down, not even losing the house cup. Moira grinned to show off her newly straightened teeth. When the magic remedy didn't work on what Rodger called her "snaggle tooth" Mr. and Mrs. McKinnon resorted to the awful, and somewhat painful, muggle method of braces. She wasn't the only kid at Hogwarts to sport braces, thank Merlin, but it certainly didn't help her image. She was "Rodger McKinnon's unfortunate looking little sister," for her first five years of Hogwarts.

"You look lovely," Dave said, ruffling her hair again. She laughed, but again fretted over her hair. It had taken Marlene and Moira five different volumizing hair potions for it to do something other than lie horribly flat on her head.

"Alright kids," said Mr. McKinnon, checking his watch, "Everyone, grab the can!" They all obeyed just in time for the can to begin to glow before it whisked them all away. After the horrible trip was over and they all landed in an unfamiliar field, Mr. McKinnon checked in with a wizard in a kilt. The can was tossed into a pile of trash and "County Clare, Ireland" was checked off the list.

"Please move along, another portkey is arriving in one minute," said the wizard in the kilt.

"Dave, you remember our cousin, Marlene, right?" Rodger said as they followed Mr. McKinnon to the camp grounds.

"Of course I do! You're a Gryffindor in Moira's year, yeah?" Marlene nodded in response. "Shame you two weren't in the same house."

"Nah," said Marlene jokingly, "We'd probably get sick of each other." It was true that Moira and Marlene had had quite a hard time spending all of their time together before Hogwarts because they were both rather competitive. They were also rather different; Marlene was booky and Moira was sporty. Ironically, Moira was the one that had been sorted into Ravenclaw, though anyone who had more than one conversation with Moira would find it more than fitting. Her father called her "precocious," her brother called her "pretentious." She didn't mean to but it seemed she could rarely refrain from using big words or spewing facts. She read a lot of books and things stuck; what else could she talk about? That was not to say that she wasn't capable of coming off as completely normal when she could stop herself from offering up trivia no one cared about. In fact, she never cared much for school and hated tests, which made her a bit of an outcast from her housemates. She often told herself how lucky she was to have Rodger and his friends, as well as Marlene, who she spent most of her free time with. Dave would refer to Moira as an "honorary Gryffindor" as long as it wasn't Quidditch season.

Rodger, Dave, Marlene, and Moira all chatted about last year and this upcoming year and how Gryffindor was going to finally beat Ravenclaw in the Quidditch cup now that Rodger and Dave were Captain and Co-captain respectively. Because she was the only Ravenclaw in the group, Moira kept her arguments purely playful. They realized then that Mr. McKinnon had stopped to talk to two men.

"Merlin! Do you know who that is?" Marlene whispered tugging on Moira's sleeve excitedly.

"That's Ludo Bagman from the Wimbourne Wasps!" Rodger gasped. Not exactly one of our favorite teams, but it was exciting nonetheless. Ludo Bagman was one of the best beaters in the league, hands down.

Mr. McKinnon extended his hand to both men. "Rookwood," he said tightly as he shook the hand of a tall man in black wizards' robes, "You know we need to dress like muggles at these events."

"Please," Rookwood said slickly, "I'm not wearing those wretched muggle clothes. Besides with all the other things that happen in the camp grounds I'm hardly worried." Mr. McKinnon didn't respond, but instead turned to Ludo and introduced himself.

"Mr. Bagman, pleasure to meet you!" said Mr. McKinnon with a hearty handshake.

"Pleasure to meet me?" Ludo chuckled, "I should be saying that to you, the Marvelous Mike McKinnon!" Rookwood rolled his eyes at this, but Ludo didn't notice and continued, "The Kestrels haven't seen a season worth mentioning since you retired!" Mr. McKinnon smiled, but went to argue because whether or not he had played for them, the Kenmare Kestrels were his favorite team, however Rodger took this moment to loudly clear his throat from behind Mr. McKinnon.

"Aye! Where are my manners? Rookwood, Bagman, these are my kids, Rodger and Moira, my neice, Marlene, and Rodger's friend, David."

"No need to introduce me!" Bagman said heartily shaking each of the kids' hands. "And I know all about the McKinnon kids! They'll be recruiting you this year, eh lad?" he said to Rodger who smiled wider than you could imagine.

"Yes, sir! We've already had a few teams come to the house to discuss options," Rodger responded.

"Bet the Cannons were the first ones!" Bagman said with a chuckle as Rodger nodded. "They think if they're the first ones with their foot in the door they'll getcha, but you're too good a player for them."

"Thank you! That means a lot, coming from you." Moira looked at her brother with pride to see that he looked like Christmas had come early. She wondered if Bagman had anything to say about her.

"And you, little miss Moira!" So he did. Moira turned to Bagman and smiled softly, hoping for praise on her past racing season, though she knew he was obviously far more into quidditch. "You have taken the racing world by storm, haven't you? Fastest and youngest girl in the ametuer league!"

"Oh. . . well," Moira said, blushing.

"No, no, don't be modest, there are stats to prove it! You should just drop out of school now and join the professional league!" Bagman continued, clapping Moira on the back.

"See, that's what I've been saying!" Moira said laughing, but her father looked displeased.

"She is not dropping out of school," he said seriously. "Her mother would never allow it," he finished with a grin and a wink. "You certainly know a lot about the up and coming athletes, Ludo."

"Look out," said Rookwood, suddenly jumping back into the conversation, "He's after your job."

Mr. McKinnon's eyebrow lifted curiously, but lightheartedly, and Bagman hastily tried to cover his tracks.

"After you retire of course! I still have plenty of quidditch years left in me. Don't want to step on anyone's toes," said Ludo, glaring at Rookwood towards the end. He pushed his yellow hair off his forehead and mentioned something about seeing someone about a bet.

The group headed off to the campgrounds as Mr. McKinnon grumbled about Bagman. "Says he wants to be Head of the DMGS and he's placing bets? Do you know what kind of message that sends?"

"It's alright Dad," Moira said patting his back just as they came upon an empty plot of land with a sign reading: "Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports: McKinnon and Guests." This was Moira's second time at the Quidditch World Cup, the last one had been right after her second year at Hogwarts. The time before that her mother felt she was too young to go to such a big event, which was a shame because that was the year her cousin, Aela, was on the winning team. This year, much like the match eight years ago was between the Irish and American National Teams. Naturally, the McKinnon's were supporting Ireland, but Aela, who was joining them, would be supporting her former team, the American Eagles. Despite the slight rivalry, Moira and Marlene were both very excited to see Aela because she was the only other female cousin on the McKinnon side.

"Alright boys! Let's set up the tent," Mr. McKinnon called to Rodger and Dave who groaned at the same time.

"We can help," Moira responded eagerly.

"No you can't," said Mr. McKinnon, "No magic 'til you're seventeen."

"Why do I even bother?" grumbled Moira. Her and Marlene took this opportunity to walk around the campsite, the match wouldn't start until the next morning so they had the entire day ahead of them. They walked past many old Ministry workers, some with their families, some chatting with co-workers. Moira and Marlene both giggled at their attempts at dressing like muggles. Ever since the two witches started going to the muggle cinema together to watch the "movies," as they were called, they had gotten much better at dressing like muggles. Frankly, they found the style of the day very freeing and hip. Marlene tugged on Moira's long braids, "They seem to be dry, you can probably undo them." Moira did as Marlene instructed and shook her hair loose. Her usually lifeless hair fell in bouncy waves down to the middle of her back.

"How do I look?" Moira asked, combing her fingers through her hair.

"Stellar!" Marlene said with a grin. As much as their personalities always clashed, Marlene and Moira's style differences were even more outrageous. Moira wore a gauzy, embroidered peasant tunic that fell just above her knees, a small denim vest, and brown knee-high moccasins Aela had gotten her from an Indian reserve. Her long, now wild, mousy brown hair matched perfectly with the hippie style she borrowed from all the surfer flicks she watched with Marlene. Marlene, who had always admired muggle models, was far more into the mod style. She used rollers to tame her dark brown curls into the high volume style of the movie stars. She was wearing a vibrant, shapeless, yellow dress with a large white collar and no sleeves. She also wore knee-high boots, but they were white and shiny and squeaked when they rubbed together. Moira felt that she was the more comfortable of the two of them. They wandered out of the VIP campsites into the souvenir venders and food carts. Foods from all over the world swirled together to make a salty-sweet smell that wafted into the campsites, luring in customers. The smell of something wonderfully familiar caught Moira's attention.

"Blimey, hotdogs!" she jogged over to the cart, not caring much if Marlene had followed her. The front of the cart was filled with moving photographs of the American players, and nearly a dozen miniature American flags stuck out of a tin cup that read: "American Flags: 2 Sickles."

"Well, hello ladies, how may I help you?" asked the young man working the cart in a clear American accent. He smiled broadly at Moira and Marlene, but his face dropped when Moira made her order. "Thought you girls were American," he said with a sigh. "I don't think any of them have arrived yet, they usually do the closest portkeys first," he continued as he squeezed mustard onto the two hotdogs. "Enjoy the match girls, and I hope you won't be offended that I don't wish your team wins." He gave the girls a light laugh then went back to his business as they walked back along the venders. There were plenty of gaudy souvenirs for both teams, as well as some old team jerseys sold dirt cheap.

"Think we should get Aela's old jersey?" Marlene said holding the jersey up in front of her. "It's only a galleon!"

"Ugh, even I wouldn't pay that much for it!" said an American from behind Moira. Marlene saw her before Moira even got a chance to turn around.

"Aela!" Marlene and Moira wrapped their arms around their favorite cousin who was dressed in high-waisted jeans and a Boston Black Cats cotton shirt. Dave and Rodger were with her and watched as the girls caught up with each other, astounded at how they could all talk over each other and still understand one another and respond even though there were three different conversations going on.

"Jees look at you two! You're gorgeous young ladies, not those little punks I saw at the last World Cup!"

"How are the Black Cats? I heard everyone got the new Clean Sweeps, I heard they're great, looking into their racing model m'self."

"How's Aunt Maureen and Uncle John? Have you heard the new Morganas' Album? It's brilliant!"

When the chatter died down a bit Rodger cut into the conversations, "Aela got s'mores stuff and Dad made a fire. Wanna head back to camp?" Everyone chatted all the way back to the tent. Moira, Rodger, and Dave prodded Aela for quidditch stories from when she played on the national team, and Marlene tried desperately to keep up with the conversation but all she knew about quidditch was the basic information she remembered from spending too much time with Rodger and Moira. They returned to the campsite to see it was entirely filled with shabby little tents and fires and clothes lines. Some people went a little overboard and put picket fences around their plots and even released a few garden gnomes. Sometimes the World Cup went on for days, weeks, or even months; it wasn't unreasonable to make yourself comfortable considering you might be there for a while. The whole area was split about 50/50 between American dignitaries and members of the Ministry, but there were a few names that Moira didn't recognize.

"Dad, who are all these people? I thought this was the VIP section." As they passed yet another sign that displayed a name, but no title.

"It is," sighed Mr. McKinnon, "Some people can actually afford to buy these tickets."

"Well that would explain what Potter's doing here," said Rodger, just as two dark-haired boys emerged, laughing, from the tent next to ours.

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**Thanks for reading :)**

**Please review!**

**_mayzie_**


	2. August Continued

**I am not JK Rowling and I don't own any of the rights to Harry Potter stuff.**

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"Oi! Potter! Black!" Dave called as we approached a tent that was a deep shade of blue and clearly new.

"Hey!" said Sirius Black while he jabbed James Potter in the ribs. James looked up from what he was doing and grinned and the boys greeted each other noisily. Aela went back the the McKinnon's tent, but Marlene and Moira hung around with Dave and Rodger as they caught up with James and Sirius. They were all in the same year, James and Sirius were even in Marlene's house. It would be rude to not, at the very least, say hello. They waited for the boys to stop wrestling or play fighting or whatever it was that they were doing, and Marlene gave a hearty, "Hello!" while Moira gave an awkward wave. Rodger and Dave were much closer with James and Sirius than the girls because they were all on the Gryffindor quidditch team. James and Sirius both gave Marlene a quick hug and offered their hands to Moira, seeing as they had never really talked before. There were only so many kids in their year, so they all knew each others' names, but it still seemed odd not to make formal introductions.

"Hey we're making s'mores, do you guys want to join us?" Rodger offered.

"What the hell are s'mores?" Sirius asked, and James looked just as confused.

"Man, you gotta try this stuff!" Dave said excitedly as he remembered the first time he had ever had a s'more at the last World Cup. "You toast a marshmallow over a fire then put it on a piece of chocolate between two graham crackers. It's sooooo good."

"Uh sure, that sounds cool," Sirius said with a searching glance at Moira, which she didn't understand.

Just as the sun was setting Moira found herself around a campfire with melted marshmallow stuck to her fingers as her dad told one of his best quidditch stories. She was between Rodger and Marlene facing Sirius and James. The story Mr. McKinnon told was the one that ended his career, which was answering one of James's questions. This story had always been Moira's favorite because it was the one in which his parents met.

The Marvelous Mike McKinnon had taken a bludger to the knee. It was his seventh season with the Kenmare Kestrels and they had just brought in a new healer that morning. Mike was nervous when they brought him to the locker room on the stretcher because he trusted the old healer with his life, and he didn't even know the new healer's name. This is when the story gets good, in walks the healer, and she is the most beautiful woman Mike has ever seen. She had eyes the color of a quidditch pitch, and hair like a freshly polished broom. At this point Moira and Rodger would laugh at the fact that their father couldn't think of any better way to describe their mother than by comparing her to quidditch. Her name was Hellen and she was all business. Mike, despite the pain, kept trying to catch her eye. She prodded his knee carefully and started fiddling around with the potions on the cart next to her. After reading what seemed to be every label on every bottle, she brandished her wand and said simply, "This may hurt a little." Before she said the spell she looked up into Mike's face for the first time to give him a reassuring smile, but she was lost in his eyes instead.

"Ended up vanishing all the bones in my knee, instead of fixing it," Mike said with a proud grin, tapping the very knee he spoke of. "Took a whole night and a full bottle of Skele Gro to fix that problem, but I knew with one look I had found the girl of my dreams. It's a rare thing to find, boys, so once you do, hold onto that," Mr. McKinnon finished happily.

Marlene and Moira exchanged a smile as Aela stood up and stretched.

"I'm off to bed, I'm getting too old for this." Dave watched her stand and retreat into the tent as James looked contemplative, watching the stars, and Sirius watched the light of the campfire dance across Moira's features.

"I'm going to turn in too," said Mr. McKinnon, "Rodger, make sure that fire's out before you lot head in, and not too late! We have to get up really early tomorrow."

"Rod, your dad is so cool," Sirius said in awe when they were all left alone.

"Yeah, my dad's nice, but he's kind of boring," James offered.

"Don't say that about Mr. Potter, he's a great man!" Sirius said with a smirk. He was messing with James, but what he said rang true. The Potters had taken Sirius in without a question when he showed up on their front door step a little over a month earlier. Mr. Potter had even run out that day to go get a ticket to the World Cup for Sirius when he realized his stay would probably be permanent.

"So how has the summer been for you two? How are Remus and Peter?" Marlene asked Sirius and James. Sirius looked to James for help, he didn't really want anyone knowing about his situation just yet, and James was always the alibi maker when they would get into trouble.

"Oh, you know, just messing around, not doing too much. Me and Sirius have spent almost the whole summer together-"

"-Naturally," Sirius cut in.

"And erm Remus we've seen a few times, his Mum's still ill, you know, and Petey's been is Spain this whole summer on holiday. He's having a blast, though, sending us letters and all. Apparently going topless on the beach there is very popular."

"What about you lot?" Sirius asked, looking to Moira, but Rodger answered.

"Pretty much the same, hanging out with Dave, thinking about which quidditch team I'll play for."

"I went on holiday to America to visit that Disneyland place. The muggles call it 'the most magical place on Earth' wouldn't they be shocked if they found out about us?" Marlene said with a laugh.

"I've just been studying up on magical law all summer, when I'm not hanging out with these losers," Dave said, pointing a thumb at Moira and Rodger, "dreadfully boring stuff, that is."

"What about you Moira?" Sirius asked, and honestly Moira was surprised he actually remembered her name.

"Er, just a bit of racing," she responded with a shrug.

"Don't be so modest Mor," Dave said. "She's top ranked in the amateur division, she broke her own world record, and professional racing teams want her to drop out of Hogwarts now and race for the pro league," Dave said proudly.

"No kidding!" James said excitedly.

"Yeah, but I'm not going to do it," Moira said a little indignantly.

"She thinks she's rubbish," Rodger said quietly.

"You had the world record and you broke it! How could you be rubbish?" Sirius asked staring at Moira in disbelief.

"Big fish, small pond. I'm not fit for the professionals, I'm just a kid. Maybe in a few more years," said Moira staring into the dying fire. She looked up at the group and made eye contact with Sirius before quickly looking back at the fire. "I'm going to bed, I'm exhausted."

Moira stood and walked to the tent, quickly followed by Marlene, who knew how much Moira hated thinking about her career, especially in the break time between the racing season and school. They stepped into the tent for the first time that night to find the familiar and cozy interior they knew from the last World Cup.

"Well, that was interesting," said Marlene from across the tent as she sifted through her duffel bag, looking for pajamas.

"What was?" asked Moira as she poured milk into two glasses in the tent's kitchenette. She was pretty sure she knew exactly what Marlene meant, but she wanted to hear her say it.

"Spending time with James Potter and Sirius Black. Was it just me or did Sirius keep staring at you?" Marlene said just before pulling closed the curtain that blocked the entrance to the bunk room. Moira stopped, halfway through twisting the cap back on the milk. She thought she had been imagining that.

"I kind of noticed too," she said slowly. The curtain opened again and Marlene stepped out in a flowery nightgown.

"Maybe he liiiikes you," Marlene teased as she sat and reached for one of the glasses of milk.

"Doubtful," Moira replied flatly. Yet, she couldn't help but hope Marlene was right.

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**Thanks for reading :)**

**Please review!**

**mayzie**


	3. September

**Still not J.K. Rowling, still don't own any rights to Harry Potter.**

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Moira walked down the corridor of the Hogwarts Express, just as it began to move. She hoped Marlene wasn't in the last cart of the train because she always felt so awkward and lost when she couldn't find anyone she knew to sit with. Walking through cart after cart and compartment after compartment of laughing students with their friends staring out the doors and silently judging her always stressed her out. Okay, she knew they weren't judging her, they probably couldn't care less about her considering she wasn't exactly known around the school, but she still felt like people were watching her as she aimlessly wandered down the corridor. Nearly halfway down the train, and halfway to giving up and running back to Rodger's compartment to beg him to pity her and let her sit with him, she heard a deliberate knocking on the compartment door she had just passed. She turned around to see Sirius Black sticking his head out the door, his long black hair obscuring his face.

"Lost?" Below the fringe of hair was a broad grin. He flicked his head to get the hair out of his eyes and fix Moira with a cheeky stare to accompany his grin.

"Just looking for Marlene," Moira mumbled, looking out at the passing forrest through the windows. She really was not used to positive attention from guys like Sirius, she had to constantly remind herself that as much as Sirius and his friends liked to joke around they never took advantage of the girls of Hogwarts.

"Is that Moira McKinnon?" she heard James call from inside the compartment. "Hey tell her to come in! We never got to talk about the match!" The fact that James and Sirius both wanted to spend time with her actually surprised her a little. She had friends, but she never felt that she interested any of them much.

"Won't you join us?" Sirius said in a voice that was a bit sensual. All Moira could think was 'These guys are too cool for me,' she never considered that in the boys' eyes her racing career made her the coolest one there. Sirius stepped aside and Moira wordlessly walked inside the compartment.

"Not much to talk about," Moira said in response to what James had said. It had, in fact, been the shortest match of Quidditch World Cup History. James and Sirius laughed and the three of them went off on a raging tangent on how disappointing it was.

"We waited four years for that?" Sirius growled.

"There was no sportsmanship! It was all on the Seeker, the least he could've done was let the others play a bit," James responded huffily.

"I'm a Seeker and even I think that was unfair!" replied Moira. They continued discussing past World Cup matches and some highlights from the previous season. Quidditch was always the easiest thing for Moira to talk about with guys. She had been raised into it; she knew more about Quidditch than racing, even though that was her sport of choice. She felt it had hindered her in the past with guys, though, because instead of reveling in the fact that she had a common interest with them, they just saw her as 'one of the guys.' She didn't really mind being one of the guys with James and Sirius, yet she kept catching Sirius staring intently at her and she found herself directing her part of the conversation at James because she didn't quite know what to make of Sirius's gaze. She also felt significantly more comfortable with James, he reminded her of Rodger in many ways.

The conversation had switched into matters of classes, and what everyone planned to do outside of Hogwarts seeing as they only had two more years ahead of them. Moira was just about to tell the boys how she felt about the whole education system when the door to their compartment slid open. In sidled Peter Pettigrew, significantly tanner and a bit thinner than the last time Moira had seen him. His wiry blond hair sat flatly on top of his head, and despite the strange contrast against it, Moira felt that the tan suited him well. In fact in that moment Moira even considered Peter somewhat attractive on his own. Certainly, compared to the teenage gods that were James and Sirius, his small eyes and pointed face made him look a bit mousy, but he really wasn't all that bad looking. He also wasn't flooded with a booming personality like the other two and Moira wondered if he liked hanging in the background, or if he felt shadowed like she did by Roger sometimes.

"Pete, do you know Moira McKinnon?" James said, gesturing towards Moira.

"Yeah?" he said slowly, eyeing her suspiciously, wondering which of his friends was trying to woo her. Perhaps both? "We've had some classes together." Moira nodded in response, offering up a friendly smile. Peter dropped his bag and relaxed into the space between James and the window and closed his eyes.

"Gees Wormtail, was the Prefects meeting that draining?" Sirius said throwing a chocolate frog box at his friend, hoping to gain a reaction. Moira noted the strange nickname, unique to each of the boys, that Sirius used. She wondered what it could possibly mean.

"Gideon's been a right prick from the start," Peter sighed without opening his eyes. "He's kept Moony to talk to him about missing his duties." Before anyone could respond, the compartment door slid open once more. Moira turned to see Remus Lupin, the one she had been waiting for. She felt her heart murmur with excitement as she looked up at him. He looked more tired and skinny than ever, but happy. He shook the hair at the back of his head with his hand in a quick motion that reminded Moira of Marlene's dog. It was a cute habit she had always liked about him.

"Remus, you know-" Sirius started, but Remus was faster.

"Moira!" he dropped his bags and opened his arms to her as she stood to hug him tightly. Sirius and James exchanged a look of slight confusion. "What are you doing with these gits?" Remus grinned.

"You guys know each other?" asked Sirius suddenly.

"Slug Club," Remus and Moira said in unison. They belonged to the rather auspicious group that was gathered by the Potions professor, Professor Slughorn. Not exactly either of their cup of tea, but they had parties every month and were given excellent networking opportunities. Slughorn only chose students who showed tremendous potential, probably to return favors to him in the future, which is why James, Sirius, and Peter had all been left out.

Moira suddenly felt awkward and uncomfortable. Though she was glad that Remus had finally arrived, she cursed the fact that he made her so self conscious when she had been having such a nice chat with James and Sirius. He sat next to her, close enough that if she turned too far she'd probably bump her leg into his and she had to be sure not to do that. The hug was unexpected enough, she didn't want to push her luck. Remus, unlike James, Sirius, and even Peter never really spent as much time with girls. It was like he was afraid of them, though he seemed to be afraid of a lot of things. Sometimes in class him and Moira would be laughing about something, having a great time and suddenly he would snap to attention and mumble about how they needed to pay attention and stop fooling around. That trait must have been annoying to James and Sirius who always seemed to be fooling around. Remus inquired as to why Moira was in their compartment and Sirius got oddly defensive about the whole thing. This caught Peter's attention and suddenly the whole cabin was active in the conversation. Once it started to get dark outside, Maggie excused herself and went to find Marlene so she could change into her robes. She stepped out of the compartment, but stopped just outside the line of sight from the door when the boys' conversation floated out into the corridor.

"What the hell was that Sirius?" Remus said angrily.

"What?" Sirius huffed in response.

"I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition when I walked in," Remus continued.

"The what?" James asked.

"Muggle reference," Peter supplied flatly. At this time Moira had herself as close to their door as she'd allow herself, listening intently. She didn't see Marlene coming down the corridor.

"Merlin, where've you been?" Moira jumped at the sound of Marlene's voice. She put her finger to her lips and pulled Marlene closer then pointed in the direction of the compartment she had just left.

"No, 'Hey Moony! How was your summer, how's your mum?' No, you jump down my throat for asking what Moira was doing here, considering I've never seen any of you talk to her before," Remus continued, his voice raising slightly.

"Is that-" Marlene whispered and Moira nodded, trying to listen.

"How is your mum?" James asked.

"She's fine," said Remus curtly.

"And your furry little problem?" To this there was no response. Moira and Marlene looked to each other for answers but both shrugged. "It's soon isn't it?" James said quietly. Moira wasn't sure she had heard it right. All she knew was that they weren't arguing over her anymore.

"We should go," Moira whispered. Marlene simply nodded and led the way back to her compartment where Lily Evans and Alice Fortescue waited, fully dressed in their Gryffindor robes. The usual greetings were exchanged and with a few meaningful expressions Marlene and Moira made it clear to each other that what had happened earlier would be discussed, just not with Lily and Alice around.

* * *

**Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!**

**Please let me know what you think. Opinions and advice are greatly appreciated.**

**mayzie**


	4. October

**This chapter's pretty long in comparison to the previous one, the chapters will probably be about this length from now on.**

**I don't own any rights to anything Harry Potter.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"The seventh years are throwing a Halloween party in the Room of Requirement for everyone fifth year and up," James whispered to Sirius, just loud enough for the surrounding students to hear. A slight buzz filled the Transfiguration room as the word spread. McGonagall pursed her lips as the room got more and more excited.

"Please, when you are quite finished, return to your essays. If you do not finish them in class I expect an essay twice as long done for homework," she said curtly. The room was instantly silenced and everyone dropped their heads and returned to scratching their quills across their parchment. Moira was nearly done and didn't particularly care either way. It was unlikely that her friends would want to go the the party. She glanced to the left to her roommate, Anna Smith, and her boyfriend Gilderoy Lockhart, who was shamelessly glancing at Anna's paper. Neither had so much as looked up from their essays as the rumor spread. She considered the possibility of going with her other roommate, Artemis MacAlary, but there was a good chance she'd be arranging a seance or something equally as odd for the holiday with her strange boyfriend, Xenophilius Lovegood. It was better if Moira just didn't go. Marlene would probably want her to go, but she always had to take care of her at things like this. No, no good could come of Moira going to the Halloween party, nothing at all. She glanced over her essay, barely reading a word, knowing it was in no need of revision and rose at the same time as Remus. They each placed their papers on McGonagall's desk. She glanced up briefly and gave a nearly imperceptible nod and the two went on their way. Once outside in the corridor Remus and Moira both headed to the Great Hall, discussing how they felt about the essay and wondering aloud how long they thought each of their friends would take to finish.

"James and Sirius would probably be out soon if they stay focussed, but Pete," Remus trailed off. It was well-known that of the four friends, Peter Pettigrew was sort of the useless one. Nice enough, honestly, a decent prowess in Defense Against the Dark Arts, but hardly any execution skills.

"I was surprised they made him Prefect," Moira said honestly.

"Pete makes a fine prefect!" Remus responded defensively, but he didn't say it quite like he meant it.

"Sorry, it's just that I thought you would've been made Prefect," Moira continued, forgetting how protective people could be of their friends, considering she didn't have any she felt strongly about outside her own family.

"Well, I was the original choice, but with- erm- my mum being sick all the time I really couldn't properly meet the requirements to be Prefect. Then with James and Sirius being such trouble makers, the pickings in Gryffindor's boy fifth years were a bit slim," Remus said with a slight laugh, acknowledging that it was alright that Moira had unintentionally insulted his friend earlier. "He is smart though, in theory, he has some really good ideas he just can't always follow through with the method itself. What about your friends?"

Moira scrunched her face up a bit; in all her time of being on casual speaking terms with Remus they had never really discussed her 'friends.'

"Artemis is real hit or miss on these sort of things. She's obviously the most brilliant in our year, but so brilliant she often gets a bit- er- lost, I suppose. Sometimes she misses the whole picture. Then Anna Smith could probably finish in a decent amount of time if she didn't wait for Lockhart to finish copying her paper. At least he's smart enough to know how to paraphrase rather than copy word-for-word," Moira responded plainly.

"I think he's smarter than you give him credit for. He's just lazy and opportunistic, I bet you by the time we graduate he'll figure out how to get through his whole life like that," Remus responded half joking, half annoyed that he was probably right.

The Ravenclaws of Moira's year were not exactly her cup of tea. She got along with them just fine, but they were all a bit arrogant about being as intelligent as they were, as if the Ravenclaw patches on their robes displayed their genius level IQs. She found that that was a generational thing. She got along very well with some of the older Ravenclaws who had seemed to have gotten over themselves before she had arrived at Hogwarts, because everyone feels a certain prestige at first when they're sorted into their preferred house. By now, though, most of her older friends had finished Hogwarts, seeing as there were only two years left above her. Moira also enjoyed the company of the younger Ravenclaws when they would ask her for help with homework. They all agreed she was the best at explaining the work because she seemed to be the only one in her year that hadn't forgotten what it was like to be a lost and confused first year and how hard everything had been in the beginning for everyone, regardless of house.

Honestly the best thing to have happened to Moira was the addition of electives to her schedule because she was able to have more classes with the friends she had made in the Slug Club, like Lily Evans and Remus. When they finally reached the Great Hall, Remus went to make his way towards the Gryffindor table, but before he did he asked Moira if she was going to the Halloween party that night. Under the flickering candle light casting odd shadows through the mouths and eyes of floating Jack-o-lanterns Moira didn't think twice before she said, "Yes." Maybe some good _could_ come of this party.

* * *

Once again, Moira was wrong. If she started taking bets against her own hopes she'd probably be rich. Remus, for once, was impossible to talk to. He was distracted and detached and hardly helped the conversation along, making Moira regret showing up to the Halloween party at all. Most of the people at the party had arrived drunk and she was stone-cold sober. After the tenth conversation between Moira and Remus died she finally decided to give up an find Marlene.

She hadn't made it very far when Sirius swaggered over to her. Despite being completely rejected by Remus, Moira couldn't help but smile as Sirius approached. He had been giving her with little compliments here or there ever since their train ride together. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't pleased with the attention. Sirius and his friends, were easily the best looking boys in her year and perhaps the ones above and below too, but they kept to themselves. This drove the girls of Hogwarts crazy because none of their affections were ever reciprocated. The Gryffindor boys seemed to always have a project to work on and other than a few flirty conversations, winks, and smiles they never gave any girls what they really wanted. Moira was especially glad for any attention since she had started wearing makeup and taming her mane and had gotten a lot better at functioning without her enormous glasses on. Anna had told her that focusing on looks rather than intelligence was shallow and made her look stupider than she already was. Not Anna's words exactly, but it was all very heavily implied. It took everything in Moira to not comment on Anna's boyfriend, who knew more about hair care products than any of the subjects taught in school. There were few things Moira hated more in people than hypocrisy, but it wasn't in her nature to point out people's flaws, or start a fight with someone she didn't care enough about to keep the fight going. It would be a complete waste of her energy so she just pursed her lips and turned back to the mirror to finish drawing in her abnormally light eyebrows.

"Well, well, Moira McKinnon, don't you clean up well?" Sirius said with a sparkle in his eye as he gave an appraising look. She faked a curtsy and smiled, "You don't look half bad yourself Black."

"Now, now aren't we on a first name basis yet?" Sirius asked, eyes wide leaning towards Moira. She was starting to realize that Sirius was probably drunk, though she had never been too good at noticing until a person was half-gone. Rodger and Dave had gotten away with drinking plenty of times and Moira hadn't known until well after when Rodger would tell her.

"You called me by my full name," Moira pointed out.

"Yes, I like how it rolls off the tongue 'Moira McKinnon,' but you can call me Sirius," he grinned toothily as his hair fell into his face. A quick flick of the neck and it was all back in place, and the grin didn't drop for a moment.

"Sirius," Moira said slowly as Sirius moved even closer. She hardly had time to come up with anything else to say before his lips were on hers. And then there was a lot more than lips on hers. It was like kissing a dog, all sloppy and wet. She pulled away slowly and smiled despite the amount of slobber on her face.

"I'm going to go get another drink" she tried to say casually, but the disappointment crept up in her voice. At least Sirius was too drunk to hear it.

It all felt wrong on so many different levels. It was her first kiss and though she tried not to build it up, something so simple tends to hold a lot of importance in a girl's life. Then there was the unmistakable taste of firewhiskey on his breath and the fact that she kept thinking of Remus. Even though Moira had never kissed anyone before, she was pretty sure that thinking of someone else was not the proper thing to do.

She sidled over to the drink table and eyed the Cauldron Brew. It was a strange combination of sherbet, juice, and liquor. It had a nice salmon tinge to it, but the half melted sherbet made it an odd consistency. Moira glanced around the room at all the girls with glasses full of the odd mix; they all looked like they were having fun. She thought of what her mother had told her about how love potions could be easily mixed into communal drinks, but then she remembered an article in Witch Weekly denouncing that as a myth seeing as alcohol tended to make most love potions invalid. Remembering this she decided to take the risk and conjure a goblet.

About half-way through her first goblet, Moira noticed Lily approach. Lily eyed the fruity mix in Moira's hand, but didn't say a word. Lily was good about that, having plenty to say, but knowing when not to say it.

"How many have you had?" Lily finally asked, after mulling over several more blunt conversation starters.

"Just this one," Moira said after her last gulp.

"Well, don't have too much, or you'll regret it," Lily responded while sweeping her gaze over the crowd. Moira followed Lily's gaze to a few older Hufflepuffs who had definitely had too much. Lily's lips were pursed, but still she kept her mouth shut.

"What's up with you? I was expecting you to come in here and shut this all down," Moira asked tactlessly, _was the Brew already starting to set in_?

"I'm allowed to have fun too!" Lily snapped back rather weakly.

"How many have _you_ had?" Moira questioned.

"None."

"Well then, join the party." And with that, Moira conjured another goblet and filled both with the Brew. With some hesitance Lily took the goblet.

"Cheers, then," she said clinking the edge with Moira's and downed the whole thing in one chug. "I'm glad someone warned me not to wear a costume to this," Lily said after starting he second goblet.

"Why would you wear a costume?" Moira asked curiously looking at Lily over the top of her own goblet.

"That's what muggles do on Halloween, they dress up like monsters and witches," Lily answered.

"Well that doesn't seem very nice," Moira responded, thinking how she'd feel if someone ever dressed up as her. Looking at herself in the mirror most days was bad enough.

By the time Marlene found Lily and Moira, they were dancing in the middle of the group singing along to one of the muggle songs that was playing. They had each finished six goblets and had convinced each other that if they stopped moving they'd probably end up on the floor. They screamed Marlene's name in unison, as well as anyone else in their favor that walked by. Moira and Lily were the perfect drunks together, each with their fair share of stresses from the day melting away with each sip of the Brew. The two of them had plowed straight through tipsy into nearly blacked-out, and they dubbed themselves best friends. At the point where all filters, inhibitions, or any real common sense were long gone Moira decided to stagger off in search of Remus while Marlene entertained an uncharacteristically talkative Lily.

Moira had some serious tunnel vision, like nothing existed outside the incessant music blaring in her ears and whatever she happened to be looking at ahead of her. _Find Remus, find Remus, find Remus,_ ran through her brain like a broken record and finally she found him. Remus. Unfortunately she didn't notice that Sirius and Peter were leaned up against the wall right next to him. Damn tunnel vision. She was about to start talking to Remus when an arm snaked around her waist and a breath, hot on her neck spoke, "Come back for more, babe?" She watched Remus stare holes into whomever it was with his arm on her waist. Her vision wobbled a bit as she tried to focus on the face next to hers. Sirius Black. Sirius. Remus. And Pettigrew standing just to Remus's right. _Oh_. _Oh well_. Sirius slipped a wet kiss onto Moira's cheek while she stared at Remus, while Remus stared at Sirius. With a roll of the eyes Remus pushed himself off the wall and stormed off.

"Wait- I- erm," Moira couldn't form any words, let alone sentences to make Remus stay. Peter contemplated the situation for a moment then chose to follow Remus. Moira wondered where James was for a fleeting moment before she realized she needed to detach herself from Sirius.

"Forget about him," Sirius said with an angry undertone, looking off in the direction Remus had gone. Moira wasn't completely sure the statement had been addressed to her. She pushed Sirius off of her and said a forceful goodbye. Now was probably a good time to get back to Marlene and Lily.

Finding them was easy because Lily was yelling at James Potter.

"Leave me alone Potter!"

"Aw come on Evans! Why do you hate me so much? Merlin, is this still about what happened first year? Has Snivellus been telling you lies about me again?" Both parties were clearly drunk and Marlene was trying really hard to calm Lily down.

"You being a total prick has nothing to do with _Severus_!" Lily screamed in response. Her hand was gripping tightly onto her wand, knuckles white. Knowing the damage Lily could do, and having lost all skills of logic possibly hours before, Moira chose to step in to help Marlene.

"Alright, alright," a booming voice said. Rodger and Dave stepped into the ring of curious students. Dave put a hand on James's chest and said something quietly that made James relax and look at the floor. Rodger put a hand on Lily's shoulder and said "Look Evans I know you don't want Prewett hearing about this. I think it's time for you to get back to the dorms," Rodger said gently, knowing just how to deal with angry drunk girls, "You too," he said looking angrily at Moira.

* * *

Dave and Rodger ended up having to drag Lily and Moira back to their perspective towers because the last of the alcohol they had consumed really hit them after Lily and James's fight.

"Damnit Mor, what the hell were you thinking getting this drunk? Have I taught you nothing?" Rodger asked heavy with disappointment and the dead weight of his sister.

Her head lolled on her shoulders when she barely whispered, "Sorry Rod."

"We'll talk about this tomorrow," Rodger responded huffily. They finally managed to get both girls up to the landing in front of the door to Ravenclaw tower. Dave was eager to deposit Moira at her house because carrying Lily would be infinitely easier with Rodger's help.

The bronze eagle on the door opened it's beak slowly and spoke a simple riddle in a cool, metallic voice, "What is it that no man has yet see, which never was, but will always be?" simple, that is, if Moira had not been nearly passed out on her brother's shoulder.

"The hell is that?" Dave asked, looking incredulously at the bronze eagle. The bronze eagle simply answered, "Sorry, but that is not the logical answer to this riddle. Think on this for it will only make you wiser."

"S' the way we get in, y'gotta answer the question," Moira supplied.

"Well what's the answer, Mor?" Rodger asked impatiently as he shifted her weight a bit to get a better grip on her.

"Ya think I can figure tha out right now?" Moira responded, spilling her words into each other.

"Urgh I do not have time to time wait around here for you to sober up and figure this out," Rodger yelled in frustration. He picked his sister up and threw her over his shoulder and thanked Merlin they had been doing so many team work outs at quidditch practice. "This is a lot easier," Rodger grunted and he turned and descended the stairs of Ravenclaw Tower. Dave followed suit by tossing Lily over his shoulder and she only made a slight grunt of discontent and the new position, but the boys covered the distance from Ravenclaw to Gryffindor in half the time had they dragged the girls.

"We're going to bring your sister into Gryffindor?" Dave asked as they approached the portrait.

"S'not like she's the first Ravenclaw to sneak into the dorms," Rodger responded. In fact there was probably at least one person from every house but Slytherin to make it into Gryffindor just within the seven years Dave and Rodger had been at Hogwarts. They supplied the password to a disapproving Fat Lady and made it to the foot of the stairs to the girls' dorms.

"Bloody hell!" Dave said suddenly, "We can't go into the girls' dorms remember? The trick step?" Rodger groaned in response.

"Do we leave them on the couch?" Dave continued.

"No, Prewett likes to hang out here on the weekends, you know that," Rodger responded. Truthfully, Dave did not know that because he usually slept straight through the weekends, unless they had early morning Quidditch practice. The boys had learned early in September that outside of house pride there really weren't many perks to having the Head Boy come from your house.

"We'll have to take them to our room," Rodger sighed. It was obvious at this point that both girls were completely passed out. This last set of stairs felt the longest and hardest to climb, because Rodger and Dave knew they were so close to their beds.

Dave offered up his bed for the girls and prayed one of them wouldn't vomit in it durning the night. Laid side by side on Dave's bed, Rodger pulled the blankets up over Lily and Moira's shoulders.

"You so owe me," Rodger whispered in Moira's ear before kissing her on the top of her head and pulling the curtains closed around the bed and he was sure he saw her smile.

"Time to cuddle, dude," Dave said posing seductively on Rodger's bed. Rodger shoved him playfully and laid in the opposite direction of Dave so that Dave's feet were even with his chest, a sleeping method they had worked out years ago durning their many sleep overs.

* * *

"Morning sunshine, lunch is in a half hour," a male voice rang out, cutting through Moira's dreams. _A male voice?_ She opened her eyes and was nearly blinded by the light streaming in through the windows causing a terrible headache to flare up. Suddenly a figure was blocking out the sun. She focused her eyes.

"Dave! What are you doing in my dorm?"

"I should ask you the same thing," Dave said with that too big, goofy grin plastered on his face. Moira looked around and realized she was definitely not in her dorm. She was still groggy, but she could tell by the fact that everything was maroon and gold that she was in Gryffindor.

"Who's bed-"

"Mine," Dave answered before Moira could finish asking.

"Yours?" Moira asked, eyes going wide at what that could mean. Why couldn't she remember how she got here?

"Relax, it was you and Evans in the bed, I was shacked up with Rod."

"Oh," Moira said with relief. Some remnants of the night floating into her memory. "Where are they?"

"I think Evans woke up and went to her own bed in the middle of the night, but Rod left early to go fly around the pitch. He's kind of mad at you," Dave lowered his voice for the last statement and stared out the window that looked out onto the pitch. Moira groaned and gripped her head, praying for some relief. Dave wordlessly handed Moira a small bottle of what she recognized as hangover potion.

"Thanks," Moira said quietly taking the bottle and administering herself the appropriate dosage.

"We should probably get you back to Ravenclaw and cleaned up before rumors start spreading about you, little Miss Moira," Dave said with a wink and he accompanied her back to her own tower and waited patiently outside, trying to figure out the bronze eagle's various riddles while Moira changed and freshened up then they both headed down to the Great Hall for lunch.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Please review :)**

**mayzie**


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